The present invention relates in general to the remote managing, documenting distribution, and monitoring of items from a storage system. In particular, the present invention relates to remote managing, distribution, documenting of distribution, and monitoring of items used in a healthcare environment. In many cases, this involves the distribution, issuing, return, and wasting of medications, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies to and from dispensing units.
Many industries require items to be available for use at specific locations. For example, in hospitals, practitioners may find it convenient to place medications and medical supply items near where patients are being treated. A nursing station is one such location, as nurses may find it more efficient to have certain medications and supplies readily available. The items being dispensed may need to be documented. This documentation requirement may be due to law, regulation, or likelihood of theft. For these and other reasons, the dispensing device may be required to be locked. Depending on the type of items dispensed, the environment where the items are used, and other variables, a variety of dispensing units and cabinets have been employed.
Typically, documentation or information may be entered directly to a dispensing device before medications, supplies, or other items may be removed by an authorized user. The entering of such information may be time consuming, inconvenient, and may cause a backlog of users waiting to access the dispensing device. It would therefore be beneficial to create systems, methods or devices that address these issues and that minimize the amount of direct interaction with the dispensing units.